Monday, September 19, 2011

Time Spiral - Chapter 7

Radha isn't exactly just another one of Freyalise's children. She's bigger and stronger than any elf. She's actually the match of any two of the Gathans, and only because Greht's magical influence made them stronger than they actually are. Llanach's forces have left, but she doesnt' need them. She is faster than these warriors and unlike them, she's still uninjured. She takes down one more Gathan and then the color horn sounds ones final time and all the Gathans retreat to form two single files lines that face each other. Greht is ready to duel.

He descends nearly half the mountain in one mighty leap. There's no point in waiting this out and she charges, only to find herself in the embarrassing situation of just bouncing right off him. Greht grabs her by the throat looks at her with curiosity while his host laughs.

Try as she might, her attacks leave him unphased.

"Your fire has no heat, elf-girl. And you call yourself a Keldon?" Greht twisted his wrist slightly, closing Radha's windpipe and forcing the blade from her hand. He waited for her eyes to flutter, then he straightened his arm and allowed her to breath again.

(Does he mean that literally or figuratively? I guess she has only been killing with her tear-shaped blades and not her fire leaves.)

Radha knows in her heart that he's wrong and the fight continues. And it continues badly. She's ready to die as Greht moves in for the killing blow, and then someone speaks up. The wizard that came with the strangers. He politely requests that the warlord stop. The request is naturally ignored, so the wizard extends a hand and the warlord is flung back up the mountain. The Gathans turn and follow after.

"My name is Teferi," he said, "and you fascinate me."

(Someone needs to work on his interpersonal skills.)

...Teferi...

Though she shows definite signs of elven blood, her height and the strength in her body favor her Keldon side. Her first words are to ask where the warlord has gone, and Teferi tries to tell her that she can kill him later but he needs her help at the moment. In fact, Freyalise said she is to come with him.

Radha doesn't care. She knows what she wants, and it has nothing to do with him. Freyalise should fulfill her own promises personally and not make any on her behalf. Teferi attempts a stern approach, but she just walks away.

A planeswalk as a means to catch up to her and impress her with his magical prowess is too risky this close to the rift, so he sends a mental command to the viashinos to stop her. She the scalies that she likes them, and then turns on them with the same ferocity as she showed the Gathans. She doesn't strike to kill, but using everything at her disposal, including teeth, isn't out of the question.

The elf tosses Skive at the tree line, and flares with green mana as Corus warily approaches with a chunk of flesh bitten out of his neck. She directs her mana here Shive landed, and Teferi is unimpressed as he watches the mana used to feed the nearby saprolings.

Then he hears the the slivers approaching. The mana had also lured the insectoids to come out and play. Teferi levitates Shive from amongst the saprolings which have grown tremendous in size, and he has his people regroup.

He turns to find Radha gone, escaped back into the forest. The saprolings and slivers are a waste of time so he quickly summons a spinning disk of ice to mow down the predator plants, which in turn distracts the slivers with something to feed on.

He commands the Shivans to finish things here while he goes after the elf.

* * *

Radha, Mana Fountain

Looks like McGough has made her a truer embodiment of her card than I imagined. I had thought that since she has the ability to summon mana on her card, using it as a weapon in the form of green fire wasn't too much of a stretch, but it turns out it really is just mana.

Where is this going?

We've had three chapters now of Teferi learning about Radha, and it looks like we're going to have at least one more. I foolishly trusted Teferi when he said we'd been in Shiv soon. (And considering how long Jhoira's known him, consider how she feels.)

But it's not as if nothing has happened in the story. In fact each chapter is pretty engrossing despite it not going in the direction I was expecting. I was thinking we'd be seeing a wider tour of Dominaria and have Teferi find two more problems for every one he solves, but it looks like we're going to be a bit more focused here. Either way, the story's pretty good so far and I don't see that changing.